If you're Black and a Weird Kid (70's Ver.), Pedro Bell's art was a big part of how you got that way. We spent HOURS poring over every dot, and we're that much better for it. | | | | Masego at Afropunk, Brooklyn, N.Y., Aug. 25, 2019.
(Jason Mendez/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “If you're Black and a Weird Kid (70's Ver.), Pedro Bell's art was a big part of how you got that way. We spent HOURS poring over every dot, and we're that much better for it.”
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| | rantnrave:// Late breaking: RIP PEDRO BELL, the "operational crazoid" artist who created most of FUNKADELIC's album covers, wrote the liner notes while he was at it, and helped create a cosmic, mythological funk universe in the process. One of the all-time great album artists. He deserved a better life in this universe. Bell on Chicago cable access TV in 1997. Talking to SUPREME in 2007. A heartbreaking profile from 2008. And then: "He could’ve been making that BASQUIAT money, but he wouldn’t follow up ... Musical law and order: MEEK MILL's 12-year odyssey in the Pennsylvania court system is over, with the Philadelphia DA's office dropping all remaining charges after he pleaded guilty Tuesday to illegal possession of a firearm. Prosecutors, who in the past year have been on the rapper's side, said the case was "an example of excessive punishment, excessive supervision.” District Attorney LARRY KRASNER told reporters, "just as [Meek Mill] has evolved in the last 10-plus years, the criminal justice system also needs to evolve." Hip hop hooray... A prosecutor in Switzerland won't appeal the suspended sentence given to A$AP ROCKY in his assault case, thus ending yet another hip-hop justice cause célèbre. The chance that Rocky will thank PRESIDENT TRUMP, who apparently saw himself as the MICHAEL RUBIN to Rocky's MEEK MILL, but without doing quite as much work, remains low... UNIVERSAL MUSIC wants to close the book on a lawsuit stemming from a disastrous 2008 fire, the disastrous effects of which it declined to disclose to its artists for several years. Previously, UMG had said four of the five artists who sued over lost master tapes had not in fact lost master tapes. Now it's saying the fifth, SOUNDGARDEN, did lose a valuable master—the 1/2-inch analog reels containing the two-track master of 1991's BADMOTORFINGER—but that it had told the band. In 2015. Seven years after the blaze. UMG is asking that the suit be dismissed. HOWARD KING, a lawyer representing artists in the suit, told VARIETY, "Why would we accept anything they say at face value now?" Still unknown, 11 years after the fire and two and a half months after the NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE's JODY ROSEN tried to assay the damage: what exactly was lost. That's the one thing artists want to know, and have a right to know... Ratings for Monday's VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS were flat, which MTV might well consider a victory. Viewership was down in the 18-49 demo and up in the 25-54 demo, which we will label the "MISSY ELLIOTT demo." Also, someone appears to have been watching at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., which we'll dub the TAYLOR SWIFT hate-watch demo... Linguists apparently hate-watch, or at least hate-read, Taylor Swift, too. But the singer was figuratively correct when she used the word "literally" in an interview last week, and anyone who doesn't understand that literally needs to get a life... Rosewood is about to become generally available to guitar, cello and clarinet makers for the first time in two years. An international endangered-species treaty in 2017 severely restricted trade in the prized tonewood, but instrument makers argued that their industry isn't the problem and that the restrictions had led to a tangible cultural loss. They're expected to be granted an exemption from the treaty this week... On Oct. 1, PRINCE's estate will take over management of PAISLEY PARK from—in case you'd forgotten—the KING's estate... RIP NEAL CASAL. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | The FADER |
| How online communities forming around stolen music from Young Thug, Playboi Carti, and Lil Uzi Vert are creating a new age of leaks at the expense of the artists they stan. | | |
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 | Afropunk |
| Saluting Pedro Bell, the mastermind artist behind a set of Funkadelic album covers which helped create a new world. | | |
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 | Mixmag |
| The modern punks of electronic music are changing the game. | | |
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 | Vulture |
| On TikTok, a song from 1926 called "Tonight You Belong to Me" became a viral trend over the summer. The song is best known from a 1956 cover by Patience and Prudence, a sister duo. It's catchy and easy to sing, making it ripe for TikTok videos. | | |
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 | Saving Country Music |
| The digital era of music has already destroyed that euphoric moment you experienced as a younger music fan when you would buy an LP, CD, or cassette at the record store, rush it home, get frustrated wrestling the cellophane loose and that stupid little anti-theft sticker that ran along the spine of the jewel case that never peeled off in one piece, frothing with anticipation of what you would hear. | | |
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 | The Illusion of More |
| Most conversations (i.e. arguments) about copyright tend to revolve around artists in the traditional sense-musicians, authors, filmmakers, photographers, etc.-wanting to make a living from their work. | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| The Cure headline Saturday's Pasadena Daydream Festival at the Rose Bowl, curated by the band's own Robert Smith. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| For me, one world-traveling, chart-conquering rhythm -- deployed by the likes of Daddy Yankee, Justin Bieber and Drake -- defines the sweatiest time of year. | | |
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 | Fast Company |
| Missy Elliott finally got the Vanguard Award at MTV’s VMAs-and she made sure to thank Kid Fury and Crissle West of the podcast ‘The Read’ for making it happen. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| It was something of a relief to see the MTV Video Music Awards approach 2019 as something of a rebuilding year. | | |
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 | The Outline |
| The site attempts to map every music genre that exists, no matter how obscure. | | |
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 | The Verge |
| The Future of Music season 2, episode 2. | | |
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 | The Quietus |
| Writer Graham Duff is a Wire obsessive currently crowdfunding a documentary on the band. Here in a celebration of their later work, he pays tribute to their lasting inventiveness. | | |
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 | Music Business Worldwide |
| LANDR CEO Pascal Pilon talks AI, and why his company believes it can changed the landscape for musicians and songwriters. | | |
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 | Bloomberg |
| Tencent Music Entertainment Group is under investigation by China’s antitrust authority in a review that could end exclusive licensing deals it forged with the world’s biggest record labels, people familiar with the matter said. | | |
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| The New York Times |
| Breaking down the sounds, the themes, the obscure (and not-so-hidden) messages and more on her seventh album. | | |
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 | The Tennessean |
| Their distinctive voices and nuanced music showed the world there was more to country music than overalls and tobacco spit. | | |
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 | YourStory |
| Gaana CEO Prashan Agarwal talks about the Times Internet-owned music-streaming company’s learnings, product innovations, future plans, and more. | | |
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| Billboard |
| The trade group wants clarification on Spotify's family plans and Amazon's low pricing for Prime Music. | | |
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 | MetalSucks |
| In the wake of the light shone on pornogrind by the Dayton mass shooting, Svalbard guitarist Serena Cherry examines how to handle the subgenre. | | |
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 | YouTube |
| | | | Meek Mill ft. Rick Ross & Jay-Z |
| | "Two-fifty a show and they still think I’m sellin’ crack / When you bring my name up to the judge, just tell him facts." |
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